Hand crafted

with care and skill

Our shop

In the heart of Ripponlea

Welcome to the Firebrand Sourdough Bakery – the home of real
bread!

Since
1987, Firebrand Sourdough Bakery, in Ripponlea Melbourne has been
making real bread with real flavour and texture using age-old
breadmaking methods. All our breads are made using a natural
leaven (sourdough starter), which we started in the mid-seventies
from two simple ingredients; organic wholemeal flour and water. We
continue to feed our natural leaven with those same ingredients
every day – and the Firebrand Sourdough Bakery is still owned and
operated by Dave Brown, who bakes to the same delicious formula to
this day.

All our breads are hand-shaped and baked in our original 1930's
wood-fired oven, either in tins or directly on the brick floor of
the oven, and all are made from organic or unbleached
flour, natural wholewheat leaven (sourdough starter), water and
sea-salt. We do not add any yeast, sugar, fat, oil or improvers –
just good, wholesome and healthy ingredients. We also make high
quality sugar free muffins, flourless cakes, chocolate brownies,
sourdough croissants, cheese and onion scrolls, biscuits, and sell
beautiful hand-made Boscastle pies and pastries.

Visit Firebrand on Facebook for a daily look at what's baking

If you're planning to come to
Firebrand today, we suggest you visit our Facebook page for
updates and pictures on which mouth-watering goodies you can
expect to find. We update the page daily with photographs,
specials and promotions, so you can plan your purchases before
leaving the comfort of your home.

Just click on the Facebook logo on the left and you'll be
transported to baking heaven! Be sure to leave us a comment, and
don't forget to 'Like' us before you leave.

The Firebrand Sourdough Bakery Wood-Fired Oven

All Firebrand Sourdough Bakery bread is
baked in our unique wood-fired oven, which we resurrected in 1987.
The oven hadn't been used since the early 1930's, but now sees
duty every day.

Unlike the little pizza ovens of today that bake with the fire
burning, our wood-fired oven bakes using heat retained from a long
firing. We fire it for 4 to 5 hours, during which time the
firebricks on the roof, floor,walls and the surrounding one metre
of sand get saturated with heat. The oven is around 450 Fahrenheit
when lit and is fired up to 750 Fahrenheit before burning out and
closing down.

We put the first bread into the oven at about 8am to 8.30am and
take it out before 9am – fresh and ready to bless any table. Our
specialty breads of the day are usually baked by 10 to 10:30am.

What is sourdough and why is it so important to Firebrand?

Sourdough – the essential ingredient of Firebrand breads is the
name for a mixture (dough or batter) of water and cereal flour
containing a culture of naturally occurring yeasts and lactic acid
bacteria.

Yeasts and bacteria are present all around us – for example in
the air, soil and water. Those well suited to bread production are
found in relatively high populations on the surface of cereal
grains, such as wheat. By grinding the grains into flour and
providing a suitable environment for these micro-organisms to
thrive (basically by adding water, maintaining an appropriate
temperature, and providing food in the form of more flour) these
populations can be increased in size and concentration, where they
co-exist in a symbiotic relationship.

Eventually there will be enough yeast cells giving off carbon
dioxide as a by-product of their respiration to make bread rise.
The interactions of the yeast and the natural enzymes they produce
have a beneficial effect on the flavour, texture and aroma of the
baked bread – placing it a world apart from mass produced
products.

Firebrand sourdough breads are full-bodied, rich in flavour and
have an aroma that’s unmatched – and that’s important to us.

Firebrand caters to the sweet tooth too – with cakes and pies
and biscuits and more!

We believe that food should be eaten out of pleasure, not
routine. So we offer our customers an ever changing variety of
different cakes, biscuits, tarts, pies, scones and muffins on a
daily basis. Of course like any good bakery, we have our
specialties; yummy flourless cake, vegan sugar free muffins,
scones and of course our gorgeous sourdough croissants.

Lulu W. – Melbourne, Victoria

Lovingly-made old-world style bread like this is hard to come
by, even in a foodie epicentre like Melbourne. I live
right by the QV Market, which has plenty of decent bread, but
Firebrand is the real deal.

Shane P. – The Dandenongs, Victoria

Firebrand bread is the most wholesome and soul nourishing
bread in Australia. I have been bringing this bread home to my
family and my friend's tables for years, providing a staple of
sourdough luxury unsurpassed by any other bakery I have ever
known locally or internationally. My gratitude goes out to
Dave and his staff at Firebrand for the enduring quality and
perseverance of ingredient integrity that makes Firebrand an
enduring Melbourne icon of the pure method, wood fired baking
style of how real bread should be. Thankyou Dave - Shane ,
family and friends.